Three Darwin drive-through bottle shops have enacted a “no car, no service” ban on cask wine sales amid debate about the Northern Territory’s alcohol problems and the inconsistent measures in place to combat it.
The Beer Wine Spirits outlets in Palmerston, Parap and Darwin airport put signs up alerting customers to the change in policy when they opened on Monday.
“To assist the community in minimising the alcohol-related harm, we are introducing a No Car No Service policy on cask wine,” the sign read.
However critics say the “piecemeal” policy is ineffective on its own, and called for consistent application of other measures instead, including a return of the banned drinkers register and the continuation of temporary beat locations (TBLs), where police question customers.
When some Alice Springs outlets first tried a “no car no cask” sales policy, it resulted in a “rush hour” for taxis who were reportedly paid a premium to take people on the short journey through the bottle shop driveway.
Dr John Boffa, spokesman for the People’s Alcohol Action Coalition, told Guardian Australia he could understand why retail outlets would try to do something like this but they had not looked at the evidence and it was “too easy to get around it”.
“It has been in Alice Springs for more than a decade, and it didn’t achieve anything until we implemented effective measures,” said Boffa.
“The temporary beat locations [policy], having the police there, has really given them a way to regulate people getting in taxis and buying grog,” he said.
Under the controversial TBL policy, police are stationed outside bottle shops to question customers as they leave, checking that there are no plans to consume the alcohol in public or in proscribed dry communities.
TBLs have been criticised for targeting Indigenous people and humiliating customers.
“But [TBLs] are not in place in Darwin and this is the problem,” said Boffa.
“I think the reason why you end up in a situation where the industry tries to implement piecemeal approaches like this is because there’s a vacuum created by the government withdrawing the photo licensing system at the point of sale across Darwin.”
A photo licensing system and the banned drinker register was “fairer and more transparent” than TBLs and less humiliating, Boffa said.
Despite the criticisms, which Boffa said were “genuine concerns”, the TBL policy was well accepted by the community.
“Overwhelmingly I think it’s fair enough to say there is majority support for TBL even though there are concerns and it is discriminatory, people see it as positive discrimination because it’s so effective,” he said.
“It’s really obvious to everybody that this is an obvious way to reduce violence and to reduce harm.”
In 2014, 57.3% of assaults were associated with alcohol, NT police crime statistics show – the lowest rate in the five years shown.
Boffa also called for the setting of a minimum price on alcohol “because heavy drinkers shift to a more expensive alcohol”.
“That’s how they get around it but that’s precisely how it works … because they drink less pure alcohol and harm goes down.”
The Country Liberal party (CLP) government has stood by its temporary beat locations. Under operation veto, of which TBLs are a part, “police have seized or tipped out 551 litres of alcohol, made 79 arrests and taken 69 individuals into protective custody” between 18 December and 8 January, said the minister for police, fire and emergency services, Peter Chandler.
The opposition, however, has dismissed the TBLs and called for a return of the scrapped banned drinker register, under which all IDs were scanned and service refused to registered problem drinkers.
“TBL’s can’t last forever – they are not a long-term solution and are not the job that police officers sign up to do; they don’t want to spend their days being a bouncer at a bottle shop,” Labor’s spokeswoman for alcohol policy, Natasha Fyles, said.
“The CLP government is touting the success of their resource-intensive temporary beat locations in the territory’s regional centres yet at the same there is a wave of crime and antisocial behaviour through Darwin and Palmerston,” Fyles said.
Federal Labor senator for the Northern Territory, Nova Peris, told Guardian Australia the register was “according to police and experts, the best tool to control alcohol supply and fight violent crime”.
“Since the CLP scrapped the BDR [banned drinkers register], violent crime has reached record levels, with 2013 and 2014 being the most violent years in the territory’s history,” she said.
“It’s little wonder local businesses are looking for solutions to curb alcohol abuse since the CLP turned the tap back on for problem drinkers by scrapping the BDR.”
The policies are not the only contentious measures within Northern Territory alcohol management plans. Alcohol mandatory treatment orders have also been questioned after a number of escapes and the death of a woman in an Alice Springs facility in October last year. Mandatory treatment occurs when a person has been taken into protective custody three or more times in a two-month period for being intoxicated in public. It has been criticised as potentially criminalising alcoholism.
